A new website established by Witold Wydmański connects refugees seeking medical assistance with doctors who want to provide it free of charge. Dedicated to patients who are in need of a medical advice, have interrupted their treatment or are low on prescribed medication, the website will allow fleeing refugees to find the correct specialist and make an appointment. If their condition requires it, they will be sent to a hospital.
As per the Polish National Health Fund’s announcement from last Wednesday, Ukrainian refugees are eligible for receiving medical assistance in Poland on the same rules as Polish patients. Despite that fact, many organisations as well as individuals are looking for doctors who would be able to offer immediate help to the refugees. At the same time, there are many doctors who would like to volunteer, but are not sure how to do it. The solution to this problem comes in the form of a new website: lekarzedlaukrainy.pl [Doctors for Ukraine]. It aims to serve as a hub for both doctors and their prospective patients.
‘The idea came from my dad, an oncologist. As a specialist, he wanted to provide help for refugees fleeing from Ukraine in the best way he can: by providing free health care. For many refugees, time is a critical factor. A lot of them probably had to interrupt their treatment and can’t wait too long before restarting it. Dad put up a post on Facebook, but he quickly realised that there’s little chance of getting to the people who need help the most’, said Witold Wydmański, the creator of the website and a student at the JU Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science.
He added: ‘Scrolling through Twitter, I saw that there is a great number of Polish doctors who have the same problem as my dad. They don’t know how to reach the people in need. I quickly set up a website which could help with that, in hope that by gathering in one place, we’ll be able to help as many people as we can. That’s how the website came to be’.
So far, the website contains the names of more than three dozen doctors, including physical therapists, gastroenterologists, gynaecologists, radiologists, psychiatrists, oncologists, dentists, diabetologists and primary care physicians. Currently, most of them are from Kraków. Doctors can register by entering their contact information on the website.
